What Are Rules?

If you receive more than a handful of messages a day, you might need some help keeping track of them all. You can use Outlook's Rules and Alerts Wizard to create rules to manage your messages. A rule consists of a condition, an action, and possibly an exception. The condition describes the properties that a message must contain in order for the rule to apply. The action is what the rule actually does, and the exceptions detail any items that meet the conditions that should not be impacted by the rule.

Rules can work on messages you receive and on messages you send. You can create rules using the Rules and Alerts Wizard or the Organize pane. This chapter explains how to create rules using both methods as well as covering the Out of Office Assistant, a special type of rule designed to enable you to inform others when you're out of the office.